Originally Posted By Lisann22 Thursday, June 22 This trip was a celebration gathering of several friends birthdays - BlacksheepUncle, quincytoo, Lisann22, JustDuckee, SuzieQ (40th), Wendebird (40th) and Iceknyght, along with the Pirates Premiere. We decided to combine in all and head down to the Happiest Place on Earth. Here is me merry tale of adventure and rollicking good times. ;> I try hard to be organized and prepared but for some reason work and life just seem to always get in the way and I'm never ready the day before a DL trip. This time it was really bad. I bailed work at 11am, came home threw laundry in the washer, got my stuff all organized. Finished some necklaces, signed cards, wrapped a few gifts, burnt my fingers burning sinew on JustDuckee’s necklace, etc. I jumped in the shower and ended up with about a half hour to relax before picking goodgirl up at the airport. She flew down from Portland to Oakland. She was going to drive down with some of us and fly home from Orange County. Hit a ton of traffic going to the Oakland airport. I looked at the temp in Livermore it was 108 degrees. When I got to Oakland it was 93 degrees. goodgirl commented on how hot it was, I told her prepare yourself it's only gonna get hotter. We got back to my house and goodgirl presented me with a birthday gift. It was a scrapbook of our trip to quincytoo’s in Canada in June of 2005. OMG - what a wonderful job she did. I almost cried. We chatted and within 20 minutes Wendebird and IceKnyght were at my house. We packed up their stuff and headed out. It was 7pm and still 106 degrees in Livermore. Yikes! We stopped in Coalinga I believe got some gas and McDonald's for dinner. We jabbered the whole way. goodgirl dozed off and on - a precursor to our little Sleeping Beauty's weekend of activities. ;> She was wide eyed in wonderment when we got on the Grapevine and the trucks were going over the pass using 3 of the 4 lanes available. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of big rigs all avoiding the heat of the day by driving the Pass late that night. It's actually a very cool sight to see. We got into LA and between the heat, the speed (we were cruising at about 90mph most of the trip) we sucked up a lot of gas. At the 60/10/410/101/5 exchange my gaslight went on. Shortly I was starting to look like SuzieQ back in January on that foggy morning her gaslight went on - actually I started to swear a bit. Oh fiddlesticks (insert your favorite swear word here), we are gonna run out of gas. We hit construction on the HWY which raised the stress level a bit. I kept looking for an exit. I knew I was either exiting into an industrial area or a "shot out" area. Neither would be good because gas stations might be a distance away. We exited and found barred up old burnt buildings, 6 or 7 Chips hanging out at a local 7/11 and no gas station. I mentioned to Wendebird "my homegirl antenna's are up we need to get the hell out of here." LOL! I know I can explain myself out of most any trouble I’m in but how am I gonna save the three white people with me? No offense to anyone, just my term of endearment to me pale face friends. ;> OMG the stress! We finally found a gas station, ok let me back up a minute. Wendebird scared the living you know what out of us when she screamed - THERE'S A GAS STATION. I almost ran us off the side of the road. We pulled in and I knew it wasn't good just by looking around. As I got out to pump the gas, IceKnyght jumped out too. I was like "what the hell are you doing?" Sorry Treach, I'm not used to guys looking out for me. I appreciate it though. I couldn't pump gas because the keypad to punch in your debit card code or zip code was all jacked up. So I had to back the truck up and go to another pump. Meantime as goodgirl described this cranked up biker dude comes over with a real gravelly voice asking if we want to buy any CD's, never pauses and moves straight into begging for change. A little bitty older woman about 4' 8" and 70 lbs wanders over and begins talking to me asking if I know how to get to the 101? Gravel man is telling us he can't give her directions cause he's been riding the bus since his license was revoked (yada yada yada) in the meantime, Lowrider Vato guy is cruising by giving me the head nod of "hey mama, wanna buy some good stuff I got in the car" look. Holy guacamole, we really REALLY need to get out of here, they are swarming down on us like locusts. My bodyguard, the brave Treacherous Japtain Cack says to me...."only put enough gas in this thing to get us to Harbor and let's get the hell out of here." Wow - I felt so safe and protected. LMAO! We get back on the road laughing and joking about the experience and all of a sudden we are in the movie "Duel" with a black monster truck. This idiot out of a Mad Max movie comes up right behind me inches from the back of my truck swerves around us on the right, barely missing my truck and cuts in between us and the van ahead. I’m over steering but can’t slam on my brakes, I have no where to go. Some how we survived, we were all awake now. Hearts pumping, blood flowing!! We made it to Anaheim in 5 hours and 15 minutes. Not bad, not my best. Did the fun stop there? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Now, we get greeted by "Roc" the black security guard for the Desert Inn and Suites. I roll down my window to hear - what do you guys want? Hello?! I tell him we are checking in. He says - you got a reservation? Um, yes! He says - alright park right there and he points for me to pull up a bit. A real Prince Charming. I get out, Treach trails me - I was still calling him Treach at this point in the weekend. We go in, I tell the dweeb behind the desk we have a room under either Lisann22, Pixie Glitter or quincytoo. He taps on the keyboard awhile and says - I don't see your names. LOL – what you don’t normally register your rooms under LP screen names? Just kidding, back up and now that I stated our “real†names. I see a Pixie Glitter but she's checked in and the second room is cancelled. I said what? No, some things not right. I go through the names again, tell him no way did she cancel the room (that scrawny little…, I'll kill her). He says, well she cancelled the room and was upgraded to a room that sleeps 10. Hello?!!!!!!!! That's our room. “Oh†was the response Treach and I got. He then replied, Well I'm just the night crew no one ever tells me anything. Annnnndddddd this is my problem how? Anyway, he gives us room keys. I ask for a parking pass and he tells me I can't have one cause they already gave quincytoo one. I was like wait a minute, she's not driving, she flew in from Canada, eh. After more confusing dialogue with dweeb boy, they let me park my truck right where it was till the morning time. We schelped all our stuff up to our room. We open the door and there's quincytoo!!! Oh my god, it was so good to see her happy smile. Then we met her best friend Teresa! What a cool cool chick! We all talked a bit and then finally hit the hay. Friday in DL coming up...
Originally Posted By Ursula WOW, what a heck of a start. If it help, I've been lost in that same area of the 101/110/5/60/170 messy area and I was there at 10:30 am and it wasn't any better. Can't wait to read more!!!
Originally Posted By wendebird I could help yelling, I was just so excited to see a gas station! lol It was so nice to pull up the the Desert Inn & be greeted with a "What do you want?" No hello, can I help you? Just a "What do you want?" lol, & it only went downhill from there. Thanks for the recap Lisa!
Originally Posted By Ursula Yeah, I wanna know what is up with that hotel. Don't they know who you are?
Originally Posted By Pixie Glitter Yeah, I'm thinking the redhead scotched my chances of ever staying at their fine establishment again--lol! Watch out for that Pixie Glitter woman. . . she's murder on incompetent front desk clerks. ;-)
Originally Posted By chickendumpling I am sooooo loving this report!!!!! I wouldn't even know where to begin the compliments! (I love the "supplements" by the co-stars in the ensuing posts! LOL!)
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Looks like you guys need my 2006 version of potty stops JK I'm loving this, but I would have been totally FREAKED out. We were at the DisHotel when I first saw your post and then the laptop went crazy. I said to DH, arrr, I can't read Lisann's trip report, he said, well we COULD go to Disneyland instead
